The governor's Redistricting Advisory Committee heard heated arguments yesterday over how to carve the city and Baltimore County into state Senate districts, but said it would wait to hear recommendations from county delegates before finally deciding on boundaries today.The committee had asked senators and delegates from the city and the county to draw up one plan last week creating eight senatorial districts in the city and seven in the county, including a majority black district along the Liberty Road corridor.

Senate approves capital budget The Maryland Senate gave final approval Wednesday to the state's $1.1 billion capital budget, authorizing borrowing to replace the state's aging medevac helicopter fleet, fund land preservation programs and launch more than $200 million in school construction. Senators voted 40-7 in favor of the plan, which is $265 million larger than last year's capital budget and required a $150 million increase in the state's borrowing limit. Sen. Allan H. Kittleman of Howard County, one of seven Republicans who opposed the budget, said the state "needs to have fiscal sanity."

LOCAL lawmakers have been making a persuasive case that they know best; they just haven't carried the argument far enough.Mostly, we've been hearing the arguments in regard to state scholarships, millions of dollars of which are now doled out by senators and delegates. The legislators have been accused of using the scholarship funds to reward political allies. Not at all, they say; they can judge real need better than some bureaucratic formula.Also, legislators have been telling other government bodies how to act -- for example, holding up funds from Baltimore public schools until the school system adopts in full (it had already adopted it partially)

In between his swearing-in and attending receptions, S. Saqib Ali was changing diapers and preparing baby bottles. For his first legislative session, the Democratic delegate from Montgomery County has moved his wife and 8-month- old daughter to Annapolis, and the 31-year-old software engineer said he thinks that being part of a young family can help him connect with many of his constituents. S. Saqib Ali But Ali's distinction as the first Muslim to serve in the General Assembly has garnered the most attention, somewhat to his chagrin.

If state legislators are looking to constituents for guidance on tax and spending issues, they're out of luck. A University of Baltimore poll shows that Marylanders are deeply divided on these questions. Slightly more than a third want to raise taxes; slightly less than a third want to cut services and most of the rest want to do both. How's that for a murky mandate?Or take another survey, undertaken by the Maryland division of the American Automobile Association, which found that nearly as many club members favor a rise in the gasoline tax as oppose it. No clear signal there, either.

IS THE TERM "legislative ethics" an oxymoron? Is there an inherent contradiction in state lawmakers abiding by a strict set of standards and values?Recent scandals involving former Sen. Larry Young and Del. Gerald J. Curran leave Marylanders with the portrait of lawmakers eager to covertly pursue private gain through the power of their elective offices.These cases, though, are the exceptions, not the rule. The vast majority of Maryland's 188 delegates and senators understand they have a special obligation to adhere to high ethical standards.

Given the turmoil over tax issues in Annapolis this session and the lack of statesmanship shown by many senators and delegates, it was inevitable that some minions would stage a palace revolt against House Speaker R. Clayton Mitchell and his tax and spending package. Their misguided and irresponsible stance, if it sways the House, would plunge Maryland into a fiscal crisis of immense proportions.Somewhere along the line, someone in the State House has to have the courage to propose the unpopular.

ANNAPOLIS -- Senators voted overwhelmingly last night to give up $500 of next year's $1,000 raise, a symbolic gesture that would direct less than $25,000 back to the state's general fund.The Senate voted 43-3 in favor of the simple resolution introduced by Sen. Frederick C. Malkus Jr., D-Dorchester. Technically, that majority carried the vote.But, because the state constitution bars senators and delegates from taking action on their own salaries, the Legislative Accounting Office will ask each senator if he or she wants to take the $500 cut, the first half of next year's raise.

THE MOOD was bright and cheerful at the Democratic caucuses of the General Assembly yesterday. House Speaker Clayton Mitchell and Senate President Mike Miller were both re-nominated for four-year terms. There wasn't a peep of discontent.It has been another good year for incumbents of both houses. If there was something akin was a voter revolt out there, it hardly dented either body. Sure, some senators and delegates lost in the last election. But the trend of increasingly small turnovers in the membership of both houses continued.

Senate approves capital budget The Maryland Senate gave final approval Wednesday to the state's $1.1 billion capital budget, authorizing borrowing to replace the state's aging medevac helicopter fleet, fund land preservation programs and launch more than $200 million in school construction. Senators voted 40-7 in favor of the plan, which is $265 million larger than last year's capital budget and required a $150 million increase in the state's borrowing limit. Sen. Allan H. Kittleman of Howard County, one of seven Republicans who opposed the budget, said the state "needs to have fiscal sanity."

THE TENSION THAT frequently infects Maryland's system for electing state lawmakers was on display last week, as a current and a former legislator announced their interest in moving to the state Senate. Sen. John J. Hafer, a veteran Republican from Western Maryland, accused Del. George C. Edwards, the House minority leader, of effectively forcing him into retirement, saying that Edwards told him that the delegate would be running for the seat regardless of whether Hafer willingly vacated it. Former Montgomery County Del. Cheryl C. Kagan, a Democrat, formed an exploratory committee to prepare for a run against longtime Sen. Jennie M. Forehand, also a Democrat.

Chances of increases in Howard County income and/or property taxes grew yesterday with the death of a proposal from County Executive James N. Robey to increase the county's real estate transfer tax to raise $215 million for school construction. Members of the county's state legislative delegation -- including all three county senators and four delegates -- voted in Annapolis to table the proposal without considering its substance, which avoided a direct vote against money for county schools.

Elderly nuns made the pilgrimage. So did teen-age figure skaters. Music fans who are passionate about Mozart showed up. So did animal lovers who worry about hurt raccoons.All day Saturday and for six hours yesterday, hundreds of people from all walks of life lined up inside the Maryland Senate building the way petitioners might once have gathered outside a medieval castle.In the gloomy corridor, they waited patiently for a six-minute chance to appeal to a Senate panel for the same blessing: Money for their causes.

IS THE TERM "legislative ethics" an oxymoron? Is there an inherent contradiction in state lawmakers abiding by a strict set of standards and values?Recent scandals involving former Sen. Larry Young and Del. Gerald J. Curran leave Marylanders with the portrait of lawmakers eager to covertly pursue private gain through the power of their elective offices.These cases, though, are the exceptions, not the rule. The vast majority of Maryland's 188 delegates and senators understand they have a special obligation to adhere to high ethical standards.

Maryland legislators have until midnight to decide whether to abolish some cherished perks, improve ethics laws, reform welfare and cut business taxes.They must reach compromises by the stroke of 12 tonight, when they adjourn for the year, or watch those bills go down the drain.The last day of a 90-day General Assembly session is always frantic, and this one will be no exception. The fate of hundreds of bills will be decided as delegates and senators play their annual game of beat the clock.

The General Assembly voted yesterday to require a cooling-off period before outgoing members can return to Annapolis as lobbyists.Under the bill, former senators and delegates who want to lobby their ex-colleagues would have to sit out one legislative session first.The measure now goes to the governor, who is expected to sign it into law."The cooling-off period would diminish the cozy relationship that appears to exist between legislators and lobbyists," said Deborah Povich, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, the self-proclaimed public interest lobby.

The General Assembly voted yesterday to require a cooling-off period before outgoing members can return to Annapolis as lobbyists.Under the bill, former senators and delegates who want to lobby their ex-colleagues would have to sit out one legislative session first.The measure now goes to the governor, who is expected to sign it into law."The cooling-off period would diminish the cozy relationship that appears to exist between legislators and lobbyists," said Deborah Povich, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, the self-proclaimed public interest lobby.